Fact of the day

Information is the most powerful weapon.

Monday

Fact N°
1394

Frederick Douglass was the first African-American to receive a vote for president at a major party convention.

Douglass received the vote (from Kentucky) at the 1888 GOP convention. However, in 1872 the brilliant orator and author was the VP on a ticket under the Equal Rights Party; his running mate was a woman named Victoria Woodhull. Their ticket did poorly in the election, but even if they had won, Woodhull was not eligible to be president -- not because she was a woman, but because she wasn't old enough.
The first such vote at a Democratic convention didn't occur until 80 years later, in 1968. At that convention Channing Phillips, a Washington DC minister, became the first African-American to receive a presidential vote at that party's convention. In fact, Phillips got more than one vote -- he got 68, to be exact.

Tuesday

Fact N°
1395

The "Grand Slam" was the heaviest conventional bomb dropped during World War II.

The massive, 22,000-pound, 25-foot-long deep penetration bombs were dropped by RAF Bomber Command on targets such as Germany's Bielefeld railway viaduct. In all, the RAF dropped 41 such bombs during the war.
In 1958, it was discovered that the casing of a Grand Slam bomb being used for 14 years as a display at the entrance of an RAF base in Lincolnshire was actually live, filled with the equivalent of 6.5 tons of TNT.

Wednesday

Fact N°
1396

Don LaFontaine is the most prolific actor in the history of the Screen Actors Guild.

Believed to have voiced or narrated over 5,000 different parts, Don LaFontaine was the king of the voice-over actors before he died in September of 2008. He could do 25 voice-overs in a day and earned well into seven figures annually. Yet, until he starred in a recent Geico commercial, he had almost no public profile.
In the 1960s, LaFontaine was a radio writer and producer. When a voice-over actor failed to show up to do his part for a radio promo for GunFighters of Casa Grande, LaFontaine stepped in, and the rest is history. He even gets credit for writing some lines that have become standards, such as "In a world where..."

Thursday

Fact N°
1397

The most popular personal computer of all time is the Commodore 64.

The Commodore 64 first went on sale in 1982 and didn't leave the computer market until the early 1990s, selling around 30 million units in that time. Its 64 KB of RAM and 1-Mhz chip, coupled with color graphics, good audio, and outstanding game-play turned many gamers into long-time loyalists.
In 2008, Commodore 64 Book - 1982-199x, by writer and Commodore 64 fan Andrew Fisher, was released, detailing the rise and popularity of the computer.

Friday

Fact N°
1398

An elephant's trunk contains around 100,000 muscles.

The trunk is an elephant's most important tool -- they use it for everything, from exploration to threats to water storage and more. It is extremely sensitive and very strong, capable of lifting 4.5% of its own weight, or somewhere around 270 kg (594 lbs).
The 100,000 individual muscle units in the trunk represent six muscle groups and are divided into pairs. Compare this to the human body, which contains only 639 muscles.

Saturday

Fact N°
1399

"Anthropophagy" is the scientific term for cannibalism.

Anthropophagy is a compelling topic, enough to gross anyone out, but according to anthropologist William Arens in his book, The Man-Eating Myth, in reality the practice is likely neither common nor habitual, and not nearly as widespread as other writers have tried to assert.
Cecil Adams at The Straight Dope seconds this notion, writing that the practice has probably been wildly exaggerated and that it "may yet join witchcraft on the dustheap of history."

Sunday

Fact N°
1400

"Whiskey" means "water of life" in Irish Gaelic.

Water is used in the distilling process of whiskey, so it isn't a huge surprise that the term "whiskey" descends from the Irish Gaelic term "usquebaugh" as well as the Scottish Gaelic "uisge beatha."
These are compound words which come from the Old Irish terms for water and life, "uisce" and "bethad," which are further translated from middle Latin "aqua vÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â«tae."